HIGHLIGHTS

Microsoft owns the Alan Wake and Quantum Break IPs

It has not shown interest in creating sequels for either

Remedy is working on a new game called Control

If you were expecting Alan Wake 2 and Quantum Break 2, you should be asking Microsoft for them. According to Remedy, the developer behind 2010’s Alan Wake for Xbox 360 and later PC, as well as 2016’s Quantum Break for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, Microsoft owns the intellectual property of both games. Alan Wake was third-person action-adventure game with horror elements while Quantum Break merged sci-fi and live action TV with a shooter. Both games released to solid reviews and decent sales, at least in Alan Wake’s case despite launching in the same month as Red Dead Redemption. However it appears that Microsoft isn’t interested in green lighting sequels to either game.

“Considering our history… Alan Wake was really interesting but it was a collaboration with Microsoft. Due to certain reasons, it never got a sequel. Quantum Break, also, we put a lot of effort into creating the world, the characters, the stories, but still it was Microsoft IP. They decided not to take it further. If we owned the IP, it’s fully in our hands to decide how we create it, how we develop, what are the creative decisions that we take? And then maybe one day in the future, if it proves to be successful, it’s again in our hands to decide what will be done. That was important for us,” said Remedy CEO Tero Virtala in conversation with GamesIndustry.biz.

With this in mind, it’s but obvious that Remedy would like to have a say in what it makes next, which is why its next game, Control will be on all platforms – PS4, Xbox One, and PC. This gives it a fair shot of selling enough to make a sequel to the puzzling narrative shooter that debuted at E3 2018.

“The business needs to be well run and systematically run,” Virtala concludes. “It should be profitable so that we are able to sustain and be there for a long time in the future and continue investing in our people, our games and our technology.

“Now when we have in our hands an IP that we own then definitely we want to bring it to as wide an audience as possible, so it made sense. [Multi-platform] was a natural next step for us.”